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<title>Calen Lhass an Melo CÎl (Green Leaves by Love Renewed.) by CassieHughes</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23985349">Calen Lhass an Melo CÎl (Green Leaves by Love Renewed.)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassieHughes/pseuds/CassieHughes'>CassieHughes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen, Guilt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:02:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,239</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23985349</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassieHughes/pseuds/CassieHughes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A starry night, a guilt ridden prince and a loving father. What more can I say!<br/>Written for Teitho challenge 'Renewal' and unfortunately was was posted early as initially I was informed that it was the only entry. See Notes at top of story.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Calen Lhass an Melo CÎl (Green Leaves by Love Renewed.)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A note from the Teitho mods: "Originally, this was the only story for the challenge because the other got lost in our email. Our sincere apologies for that! We can't really take back the announcement of the author of this story and don't want her to lose the feedback on the version posted here, so please forgive this lapse from our side and don't let it influence your vote. Thank you for understanding!"</p>
<p>Mirach</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It is still so beautiful up here amidst the singed leaves and blackened branches, almost, almost I can forget. The stars lay spread above me in the deep indigo sky, their songs twinkling at the edges of my hearing as if in hushed reverence and I know that even they grieve. These losses that we have taken hit so hard. My vision blurs, I feel the slide of tears down cheeks already washed beyond bare by immeasurable grief.<br/>
<br/>
My forest.<br/>
<br/>
My people.<br/>
<br/>
My home.<br/>
<br/>
I should have been here.<br/>
<br/>
Yet how could I split myself in twain? I had sworn an oath to go so far, to aid in the protection of he who held the key to our freedom in his tiny hand.<br/>
<br/>
To go so far only before returning to my home.<br/>
<br/>
But how could I leave them? How could I bear to turn my back and say my part was played?<br/>
<br/>
My forest had called out for aid in my every waking dream, filled my fëa with every step that I took further away and I had ached to be unable to give it. My feet were set upon another path and onwards they must go or all that I had done thus far would have been for naught. It had almost broken my heart.<br/>
<br/>
Suddenly I can no longer bear the scent of soot and death that fills the air and glancing down begin to pick my route back to the forest floor. It is then that I notice him. Standing tall and proud, his pale form picked out by the cold moonlight filtering down through the maimed and twisted branches. How long has he been there? Patiently waiting. He has ever been able to outwit my senses, even more so now that they are so muddied and out of sorts. I feel his piercing gaze track my progress through the boughs until my feet touch the charred ground and I stand, waiting and wretched before him.<br/>
<br/>
I know that I have let him down.<br/>
<br/>
I left him to face his deepest fear alone. This forest is his life and those who dwell within its children. Inextricably entwined he would lay down his life for a single part. Oh, I know that he bid me leave, take the wretched news of our failure to Master Elrond but he would have had me return as soon as it was conveyed. I abstained from doing his bidding and stayed away far longer than my sparse missive espoused.<br/>
<br/>
And now I must do so again.<br/>
<br/>
“My son.”<br/>
<br/>
His voice, soft yet firm, takes me back to childhood and I feel my fingers seeking the loose thread ever present at the hem of my adolescent tunic, that they must twist and twine about. Of course, it is not there. Has not been for many years now, but still he has such an effect.<br/>
<br/>
“Legolas. Look to me.”<br/>
<br/>
My eyes raise of their own accord, compelled by years of duteousness and at last they meet his own. Yet the harsh glare of anger, resentment and authority I expect to see is absent and for a moment my mind is unable to make sense of the emotions swirling in their sky blue depths.<br/>
<br/>
Love, respect, pride. I shake my head, uncomprehending what I see. How can this be?<br/>
<br/>
I cannot read him as I did before I left, nay, abandoned him, abandoned them all at a time they needed me most.<br/>
<br/>
“Legolas.”<br/>
<br/>
A single word yet in it enough emotion to make me weep.<br/>
<br/>
“Legolas.”<br/>
<br/>
Almost a whisper now as he opens his arms, eyes filled with longing and suddenly I find my feet have a mind of their own as they rush me forwards to stumble into his embrace.<br/>
<br/>
“Ada. I...”<br/>
<br/>
My throat closes and further speech will not come.<br/>
<br/>
“Hush, Little Leaf. Hush.”<br/>
I<br/>
tremble like a new born fawn beneath the touch of his hand as it rubs a gentle, comforting course on my back. My tears begin to settle under his soothing presence.<br/>
<br/>
“My brave one.” He croons softly. “Come. Walk with me.”<br/>
<br/>
A deep breath and I am able to let go, step back and look up into his concerned face.<br/>
<br/>
“I have something to show you.”<br/>
<br/>
He moves into the surrounding forest without a sound, leaving no footprint on the blackened ground and I follow, wondering where we go and why as he leads me further into the forest. The twisted remains of trees reach their charred branches high into the sky as if trying to touch the stars above but their song is silent now to me.<br/>
<br/>
At last the trees begin to thin and I realise that we have come to stand at the edge of a clearing. One that I know only too well for this was where my father held the grand feast to celebrate my coming of age. According to history it is also the place where my father first found me as a babe, but that is a tale for another time.*<br/>
<br/>
I watch as he slowly walks to the centre where a circular depression marks the area which contained the large fire we danced around and leapt over, goading each other to jump further, higher and spin faster than ever before. The memory is so strong I can almost hear the music, the joyous shouts and laughter, smell the roasting venison and burning wood.<br/>
<br/>
It is this last that suddenly brings me back to the present and I realise it is the remnants of another, more encompassing fire that fills my nostrils with the reek of burnt oak and ash. My heart may no longer beat to the steady rhythm of the forest, my fëa resound to a different, more undulating song yet I can still feel his loss.<br/>
<br/>
“Join me.”<br/>
<br/>
Soft and tender. My father holds out a hand and without pause, my feet carry me to where he stands.<br/>
<br/>
“My most precious memories lie within this place.”<br/>
<br/>
He kneels in the midst of the charred debris and gently begins to brush it aside.<br/>
<br/>
“And it is here that Yavanna blessed me again. Look.”<br/>
<br/>
I kneel down beside him, eyes alighting on the spot where his fingers tenderly rest. Curled lovingly around a small sapling, no higher than a hands span and bearing a single, tiny, green leaf gently illuminated by the moons glow.<br/>
“<br/>
The first of many signs I have since seen scattered throughout the forest.”<br/>
<br/>
He stands and I stand with him.<br/>
“<br/>
Lasgallen will recover and I will remain with our people to ensure its restoration.”<br/>
<br/>
He smiles then and lifts his eyes from the sapling to me.<br/>
<br/>
“But your feet must follow a different path ion nin. Your destiny lays in assuring renewal elsewhere.”<br/>
<br/>
Then, in a surging wave, my father’s love washes over me, pure and uncomplicated, flushing away the guilt and shame I have carried for such a long time and finally my heart finds peace.<br/>
<br/>
I know now that I will never see either of them again after I leave this time but I will take the love of my beautiful home and this most strong, brave and devoted of fathers with me and when eventually I sail I will carry their story with me so that they shall live on in the hearts and minds of those who dwell in that far green country beyond the veil of silver glass.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*The story that is alluded to here can be found if you read my story 'The last Green Leaf'</p></blockquote></div></div>
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